Crypto Crime Is Down 65% Overall
The data is out from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis and its new report that finds every cryptocurrency crime category that isn’t ransomware has dropped in the first half of 2023.
Scams, hacks, fraud shops, and darknet market revenue are all down. Together, all the crime categories have cumulatively seen a 65% decrease in revenue losses compared to this time last year.
Scams in particular have plummeted, with an impressive $3.3 billion decrease since last year. The firm explains that this is due in part to the “exit scam” of two “large-scale scams” — VidiLook and Chia Tai Tianqing Pharmaceutical Financial Management. These groups have cashed out, leaving far fewer dollars being scammed overall.
Why Is Ransomware Up?
But ransomware is going strong: Pound for pound, cumulative ransomware revenue in 2023 is equal to 90% of all ransomware revenues across 2022 — and we’re only halfway through the year.
Chainalysis points out two reasons that together help to explain the upward trend in crypto ransomware:
“For one thing, big game hunting — that is, the targeting of large, deep-pocketed organizations by ransomware attackers — seems to have bounced back after a lull in 2022. At the same time, the number of successful small attacks has also grown. Both trends are evident on the chart below, which shows how the distribution of ransomware payment sizes has changed since 2020.”
In other words, crypto is being hit on two fronts: The big attacks are getting bigger, and the smaller attacks are increasing in number.
Ransomware Attacks and Crypto
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